Rapprochement between Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau: Does it help in the negotiations between LIV Golf – PGA Tour?

The pair have not always seen eye-to-eye

The creation of LIV Golf heavily altered some of the existing relationships and friendships within the golfing world.

One of those was the friendship between Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau, but the pair appear to be warming up to one another again which could be very big for the future of the sport.

Woods was one of the people who chose to stick with the PGA Tour rather than jump ship to the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf and that meant he stopped talking to many of his old professionals who did leave, such as Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, or Dustin Johnson.

DeChambeau and Woods used to train together and were close friends, but the former later claimed that Woods had been giving him the silent treatment since the move.

Woods makes the first move

However, during the practice round at Royal Troon, DeChambeau was approached by his old friend.

DeChambeau defeated Rory McIlroy by one stroke and won the US Open this year. Woods came to congratulate him on the win which certainly was not expected.

An excited DeChambeau told Golf Digest: “It is the first communication, but I’ll say he’s a competitor and I have a lot of respect for him. I’m sure that winning two US Opens helped, I guess, for him coming up and saying congrats. I don’t know what his position is, but it was very thoughtful, and I was appreciative of it.”

Woods is one of the people at the center of the talks between the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund that runs LIV Golf, and the PGA Tour.

At the pre-conference of the Royal Troon, he even stated that they are making progress, and he is happy with it.

“We’ve got to keep everything at a high level and private, but things are moving and things are changing. It’s evolving every day. There’s e-mails and chains and texts and ideas that we bounce back and forth from both sides,” said Woods.